In recent years great strides have been made in the elucidation of the steps involved in intercellular and intracellular signaling. Indeed, the individual steps of the cascade of events involved in a number of cellular signal transduction processes have been determined. For example, intercellular signal transduction generally begins with an intercellular ligand binding the extracellular portion of a receptor of the plasma membrane. The bound receptor then either directly or indirectly initiates the activation of one or more cellular factors. An activated cellular factor may act as transcription factor by entering the nucleus to interact with its corresponding genomic response element, or alternatively, it may interact with other cellular factors depending on the complexity of the process. In either case, one or more transcription factors ultimately bind to one or more specific genomic response elements. This binding plays a crucial role in the up and/or down regulation of the transcription of the specific genes that are under the control of these genomic response elements. However, the process of re-organizing the chromatin of eukaryotic cells, which is a prerequisite for the binding of the transcription factor to the genomic response elements, has remained a mystery.
Chromatin contains several highly conserved histone proteins including: H3, H4, H2A, H2B, and H1. These histone proteins package eukaryotic DNA into repeating nucleosomal units that are folded into higher-order chromatin fibers [Luger and Richmond, Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 8:140-146 (1998)]. A portion of the histone that comprises roughly a quarter of the protein protrudes from the chromatin surface, and is thereby sensitive to proteolytic enzymes [van Holde, in Chromatin (Rich, A,. ed., Springer, New York) pages 111-148 (1988); Hect et al., Cell 80:583-592 (1995)]. This portion of the histone is known as the “histone tail”. Histone tails tend to be free for protein-protein interaction, and are also the portion of the histone most prone to post-translational modification. Such post-translational modification includes acetylation, phosphorylation, methylation, ubiquitination, and ADP-ribosylation [van Holde, in Chromatin (Rich, A,. ed., Springer, New York) pages 111-148 (1988)].
Of all classes of proteins, histones are amongst the most susceptible to post-translational modification. Perhaps the best studied post-translational modification of histones is the acetylation of specific lysine residues [Grunstin, M., Nature, 389:349-352 (1997)]. Indeed, acetylation of histone lysine residues has been suggested to play a pivotal role in chromatin remodeling and gene activation. Consistently, distinct classes of enzymes, namely histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs), acetylate or de-acetylate specific histone lysine residues [Struhl, Genes Dev. 12:599-606 (1998)].
Nearly all known nuclear HATs contain an approximately 110 amino acid sequence known as the bromodomain [Jeanmougin et al., Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 22:151-153 (1997)], a protein motif that was initially discovered in Drosophila brahma protein. Bromodomains are found in a large number of chromatin-associated proteins and have now been identified in approximately 70 human proteins, often adjacent to other protein motifs [Jeanmougin et al., Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 22:151-153 (1997); Tamkun et al., Cell, 68:561-572 (1992): Hanes et al., Nucleic Acids Research, 20:2603 (1992)]. Proteins that contain a bromodomain often contain a second bromodomain. However, despite the wide occurrence of bromodomains and their likely role in chromatin regulation, their three-dimensional structure and binding partners heretofore have remained unknown.
Therefore, there is a need to identify a binding partner for a bromodomain. In addition, there is a need to identify agonists or antagonists to the bromodomain-binding partner complex. Since a preferred method of drug-screening relies on structure based drug design, there is also a need to determine the three-dimensional structure of a bromodomain. In this case, once the three dimensional structure of bromodomain is determined, potential agonists and/or potential antagonists can be designed with the aid of computer modeling [Bugg et al., Scientific American, December:92-98 (1993); West et al., TIPS, 16:67-74 (1995); Dunbrack et al., Folding & Design, 2:27-42 (1997)]. However, heretofore the three-dimensional structure of the bromodomain has remained unknown. Therefore, there is a need for obtaining a form of the bromodomain that is amenable for NMR analysis and/or X-ray crystallographic analysis. Furthermore, there is a need for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of the bromodomain. Finally, there is a need for procedures for related structural based drug design predicated on such structural data.
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